Leading scholars reflect critically on the kinds of appeal to the Bible that have been made in environmental ethics and ecotheoloogy and engage with biblical texts with a view towards exploring their contribution to an ecological ethics. The essays explore the kind of hermeneutic necessary for such engagement to be fruitful for contemporary theology and ethics. Crucial to such broad reflection is the bringing together of a range of perspectives: biblical studies, historical theology, hermeneutics, and theological ethics. The thematic coherence of the book is provided by the running focus on the ways in which biblical texts have been, or might be, read. This volume is not about ecotheology, but is instead about ecological hermeneutics. Indeed, some essays show where biblical texts, or particular approaches in the history of interpretation, represent anthropocentric or even anti-ecological moves. One of the overall aims of the book is to suggest how, and why, an ecological hermeneutic might be developed, and the kinds of intepretive choices that are required in such a development.

Introduction (The Editors)Section 1: Biblical perspectivesSection Introduction (The Editors)1. The Creation Stories: their Ecological Potential (and Problems) (John Rogerson)2. Land, Sin, Sacrifice: The ecological ethics of Leviticus (Jonathan Morgan)3. Reading the Prophets from an Environmental Perspective (John Barton)4. The Significance of the Wisdom Tradition in the Ecological Debate (Katharine Dell)5. Jesus and the Gospels in Ecotheological Perspective (Richard Bauckham)6. An Ecological Reading of Rom 8.19-22: Possibilities and Hesitations (Brendan Byrne)7. Hellenistic Cosmology and the Letter to the Colossians: Towards an Ecological Hermeneutic (Vicky Balabanski)8. Cosmic Catastrophe Imagery in the New Testament (Edward Adams)Section 2: Insights from the history of interpretationSection Introduction (The Editors)9. In the Beginning: Irenaeus, Creation, and the Environment (Francis Watson)10. The Fathers' Readings of Genesis 1 (Morwenna Ludlow)11. Thomas Aquinas: Reading the Idea of Dominion in the Light of the Doctrine of Creation (Mark Wynn)12. Reformation readings of the Creation stories (H. Paul Santmire)13. Between Creation and Transfiguration: the environment in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Andrew Louth)14. Karl Barth's Approach to Scripture and its Ecological Potential (Geoff Thompson)15. Hans Urs von Balthasar and a Creation-centred Hermeneutic (David Moss)16. Jürgen Moltmann on God and Creation (Jeremy Law)Section 3: Contemporary hermeneutical possibilitiesSection Introduction (The Editors)17. The Greening of American Fundamentalism and Its Detractors (Harry Maier)18. New Testament Eschatology and the Ecological Crisis in Theological and Ecclesial Perspective (Stephen Barton)19. Sustainable Countryside (Tim Gorringe)20. Towards a Theological Ecological Hermeneutic (Ernst Conradie)Epilogue (The Editors)Indexes Index of Biblical Texts Index of Modern Authors Index of Subjects